The ABCs of Adventuring

Thanks for this find, Mark Sample (via Twitter). The ABCs of Adventuringby Admiral Jota, Dylan O’Donnell, G. Kevin Wilson, and Dan Shiovitz.A is for Adventure, the first of them all;B is for Brass lantern, so you don’t take a fall.C is for Compass, an unseen one you keepD is for Drinking, eating and sleep.E is…

What Makes a Great Teacher?

Gripping story of an effort to use data to predict teaching excellence. As Teach for America began to identify exceptional teachers using this data, Farr began to watch them. He observed their classes, read their lesson plans, and talked to them about their teaching methods and beliefs. He and his colleagues surveyed Teach for America…

Why Google Has Become Microsoft's Evil Twin

Google Buzz combined the openness of Twitter with the “whoo-hoo look at me!” aspects of Facebook. The result? A total face plant. —PC World Similar:Rolling Stone and UVA: The Columbia School of Journalism ReportSloppy journalism can ruin lives. Check …AcademiaHow Not to Hate Shakespeare The problem isn’t Shakespeare—it’s h…CultureFair use prevails as Supreme Court rejects…

Critical Code Studies Working Group — Colossal Cave Adventure Annotation

This week, I’ll be facilitating a week-long collaborative annotation project, as part of the Critical Code Studies Working Group online conference, on the source code to Crowther’s original Colossal Cave Adventure (a classic text-only computer game from the 1970s). According to Donald Knuth, designer of the “literate programming paradigm,” Colossal Cave Adventure is the “ur-game…

Happy V-Day: Valentines for Journalists

Valentines for Journalists. Similar:Why Do So Many People on YouTube Sound the Same?So it turns out the “YouTube voice” is j…CultureThe Unbearable Weakness of Trump’s MinionsNote that the URL of this story indicate…AcademiaVanessa Otero's Complex vs. Clickbait, Liberal vs. Conservative Media ChartUpdate, June 2020: See Vanessa Otero Ad …CultureUnderstanding the difference between credible information and…

Frisbee inventor dies at 90

Walter Frederick Morrison, the man credited with inventing the Frisbee, has died at the age of 90. —Guardian Similar:Google Autocomplete Still Makes Hateful Autocorrect SuggestionsThe top suggestion for a Holocaust searc…BusinessAxios journalism style delivers traditional news content in scannable formatIn addition to the fact that it’s good n…Current_Events'Jane Austen, Game Theorist' by Michael Suk-Young Chwe…

Peter West, Trying the Dark: Mammoth Cave and the Racial Imagination, 1839-1869

Interesting examination of role-playing, illusion, identity, and power in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave, one small branch of which was the inspiration for the 1976/7 computer game Colossal Cave Adventure. In the middle decades of the nineteenth century, Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave was a popular tourist destination for travelers from around the United States and beyond. The cave…

Typography and Textuality

Zach Whalen is turning his dissertation into a blog-web-thing, in the hopes of developing a book-thing. In whatever form it takes, it’s an interesting approach to a textual study of video games. This study asks how the design and configuration of text in videogames contributes to their textuality. I argue that videogames are texts in…

Google’s Super Bowl Ad: A Romance in Search

I didn’t watch the game, but I did catch the buzz about this ad. Yes, I did tear up. (Wired has details.) Similar:The Myth of the MegalithI have found that archaeologists are sel…CultureChecking sources back in 2006 involved using this *steampunk* contraption.Research Before Google Books AcademiaPlagiarism Today Plagiarized in a Plagiarism Atonement EssayJonathan Bailey writes:…

The great global warming collapse

It is dangerous to use local weather events (such as a heavy or light winter) to make judgments about global climate. With that caveat, I’m blogging the following because I’ve noted a shift in the online discussion about “global warming,” or the more general “climate change”. This essay does a good job exploring the events…

Obligatory Snowpocalypse Photo

Here’s hoping I left gas in the snow-thrower. Similar:We found a mushroom fairy ring in our yardIt won’t make the afternoon of mowing mo…AestheticsHelvetica Bold Oblique Sweeps FontysHelvetica Bold Oblique was the big winne…AestheticsLooking forward to this! @thepublicpghLooking forward to this! @thepublicpghDramaHey there, chaotic world in academia and beyond, could you settle down just a…